How to get to front page of ETSY? At long last an item made it to the FRONT PAGE of etsy!!

I have been to date featured in 50 treasuries which you can view here at etsy treasuries . I have only made a few myself, as they are very time consuming. I made two Halloween themed collections, Black and White Halloween , Handmade Halloween and one for Recycled Art which I included one of my own items, My Funky Suitcase. It is suggested that when you do make a collection that you do not use your own items. I dislike this suggestion very much. As I said they are very time consuming, granted they are lots of fun to make and you get to see allot of great things out in the world of etsy.

The item that made it is this mother of pearl shoe clip

It was featured in pewter and pine , which I love and also in Treasures from the sea. I use craftopolis to keep track of my items that are listed in a Treasury yet this treasury that was featured is not indicated. Furthermore, I never received any notification that I was featured. I had to search craftopolis because I noticed that my views for that day hit the roof, and specially for that item, on This Friday it received 17 hearts alone. Therefore I knew what item to look for. It is interesting to note that I did not make a sale on the day that I was listed on the front page, I had 1411 page views and 408 visitors that day. I received 13 shop hearts and 33 individual favorite hearts, with 17 going to the featured item with 285 page views for this item alone!

The shop that created the list is lillipopsdesigns
She has made 99 treasuries
I have no idea how she finds the time, nor do I know how many times her lists have been featured. I was never informed by this seller that I was featured, more than likely she does not have the time. This collection was named

Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

ARTIFRE item Listed in BIZRATE

I was doing a search for a dress listing that I had lost and discovered that I had been placed on this web site. This dress is the only item that they have chosen and it is from ARTFIRE. Many stores are on this site, such as JC PENNYS and Spiegel l it appears to be a site that rates a store. What I wonder is how they picked me up. Did artfire submit? WEll my sales on artfire are slow, I only have 32 or so and hardly anyone leaves Karma, or feedback. It is not that easy of a process. What do they do? I am curious how they collect their information to make a rating.

as it stands this dress has only received about 97 views, not a crazy amount . My questions is this a new site? It does not appear to be interactive, other than allowing you to search items and see the stores rating and then go directly to the store.


On this page you can see that other stores are listed but mine is unrated when I click the Why it reads

Q:

Why is this store not yet rated?

A:

Store ratings are provided by BizRate. Not Yet Rated means that BizRate is in the process of evaluating the store but has not yet collected enough customer reviews to issue a rating. BizRate requires a minimum of 20 surveys in the past 90 days to ensure a statistically significant rating of a store's performance and not the opinion of just a handful of customers. As soon as enough valid reviews have been collected, a rating will be calculated and displayed.

REGRESTY Freind or Foe of ETSY?

This is the phone that is featured on the controversial site Regresty.com


This is an up date on a post I wrote after on of my works of Art, a rotary phone was featured on Regretsy. Initially I was devastated, my checks burned with humiliation and shame. I am 50 plus years old, yet I felt like a little girl who just wet her pants in front of the class room.

My first impulse was to join the site and begin to rant away, when I quickly realized that those posts would never hit the press sort to speak. When I discovered that all the posts were about one upping the other in a tone of criticism. I could clearly see that the intent of the site, at least initially, was to be cleaver in ones remarks, but that many posted cruel and meaningless, not funny or smart at all. I pulled up my boot straps, and resigned to be thankful for the intense increase in views.

My views, in just two months went over 2000 with 8 hearts, the phone next to it, one that was mentioned in a regretsy post which shared its link ,a vintage phone made of CANDY WRAPPERS also showed increased views, which today is at over 700 with 8 hearts.

Before being featured I did not know about regretsy, My daughters and I had a blast looking at all the art. Admittedly some we found ghastly, but most we loved. We went and visited many stores and found that many of the items had already sold. In fact we seriously considered purchasing a couple items. It is true we love bold bright kitsch and unusual things and found the site all in all a great source to find these type of items.

We did not however, enjoy reading much of the criticism of the work featured, it held no charm what so ever, as many remarks were over the top mean spirited, and not cleaver roasts at all.

I posted my thoughts and feelings on this blog and on an etsy forum and frankly forgot about it. I played with the idea of making a phone for regresty, a hot-line punk.

Then the day that changed everything. I swear that this is how it happened. My phone sits next to me at my desk. I looked up at it, and thought
"this is crap, why don't I just give up... no one wants your stuff..." you get it, a whole swarm of self deprecating thoughts swam in my mind, boo hoo the poor misunderstood artist.

The next day out with my daughters for lunch I was compelled to grab my EVO phone from sprint ( the greatest thing since sliced bread) and check my etsy store and there it was my 186 th sale was my phone, completed transaction,pay pal and all!!! Boast to my temporary fragile ego just in the nick of time.

So is regresty friend or foe?
The site is my friend indeed. In fact I hope they pick up my bloody baby dolls that we (my daughters and I ) are presently making for Halloween for sale at FUNKY FINDZ ON LINE sister store CATHYS COSTUME FINDZ

Looking for sites to help you indenity VINTAGE FASHION?

I was recently reading a post in a forum where a seller kindly gave a huge list of useful links. Here are the ones that I think are the most useful

FASHION ENCYCLOPEDIA what I don't care for however is that there are not any pictures and I tend to learn best from visuals such as found in this visual dictionary showing different dress styles .

The most useful link however is from the VINTAGE FASHION GUILD which provides a great time line on the front page and follows throw with information that is both useful and interesting. such as what I found here in the 1950 1960 category

"A female function was to entertain or attend social gatherings - all to promote and further their spouse's career. Cocktail dresses - short versions of ball gowns - were essential. A woman was expected to wear a hat outside of the house (except for the most formal evening occasions) and gloves at all times - short for day, long for evening. Men tended almost to universally wear suits. The practice of dressing young people like their elders was still common, with the 'mother/daughter' look as particularly in vogue. " Here is an example that I have in my inventory of the great cocktail dress.

dying wedding dresses into spooky costumes

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN DRESS


FINISHED BACK WITH BLACK SATIN RIBBON











TIE DYING STAINED WEDDING DRESSES INTO A SPOOKY WORK OF ART.

Vintage tie dyed Wedding dress hanging to dry.



I wish to point out the Rit dye is not recommended for none protein fabrics, such as nylon and polyester because they do not take up the color etc. I used them because I wanted a faded, light look. I also was willing to risk losing a dress,as they were already unsellable in their present condition. I was experiencing. Furthermore I live by my motto,that nothing is ruined, mistakes are non existent in art, it is an opportunity for the art to move in a new direction.

Do I need to use salt, in dyeing?

Salt (sodium chloride, specifically) is important in using many types of dyes. Exactly how it should (or should not) be used depends on the specific type of dye in question. When using salt, always follow the recommendations of the dye manufacturer, unless you know better.

Contrary to some old wives' tales, salt is not a dye fixative and does nothing to make dye more permanent; however, it aids in the dyeing process by helping to drive the dye onto the fiber, out of solution, so that it is in the right place for any bonding to the fiber to occur. (http://www.pburch.net/dyeing.shtml)I used salt in this project.




My daughter Liz, and apprentice in waiting, puts Baggies over parts we don't want dyed black.



Loving the color that comes out in the dipping method on the netting of the dress. I then dipped everything in black to get the worn aged effect I wanted for a spooky dress.



Two wedding dresses tied up and ready to go






MAKING COSTUMES FROM stained WEDDING DRESSES

I have a large inventory of Wedding dress still left over from the days of my retail boutique, which I have begun to sell , albeit slowly on line at http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/funkyfindzonline. however, I am unable to sell some due to staining, it is usually wine or coffee on the vintage bridal. This always brings a smile to me, as I conjure up visions of the happy bride, a bit tippsie toward the end of the evening, with not much care, and in the joy of the event dripping on her dress and not even realizing it her hot cup of coffee she drinks with her wedding cap, or that red wine she cherishes with her bridal dinner. This might be charming, but it makes it very difficult to sell these once worn dresses on line. A women does not want these memories to haunt her on her wedding day.

I love Halloween and making art for this holiday makes it my favorite time of the year. We decorate our home with stuffed dolls and spook it up good,complete with haunting ghoulish music and fog machine.

I love the haunted corpse bride and thought why not take these dresses and hand dye them for Halloween? I have a costume store http://www.etsy.com/shop/Cathyscostumefindz where I sell vintage handmade costumes and I figured I could sell these here. So I went to my local grocery store and picked up a few bottles of Rit dye, buckets and gloves. I started off with purple and black.


I had done tie dying before, and new that I needed a variety of rubber bands, I am familiar with the accordion method and others. See this method here http://www.ritdye.com/Tie-Dyeing.106.149.lasso

tie dying requires allot of rubber bands, my cat ENKI, keeps guard


THE DIPPING METHOD


My daughter Miranda quick grabs a cotton shirt and uses the left over dye to make a great shirt, this white shirt of hers was too stained to wear any more, now she has a new shirt that she can proudly say she made.



Dress with rubber bands in it. When I took them out I was disappointed a bit, much of the tie soaked threw, I believe this is because of the nature of the fabric. Rit recommends using cotton, which is much more absorbent.I will rethink this next time. It was allot of work and the results I don't think were worth it.

I hung the dresses outside to dry.
r



A early 1970s wedding dress that had alot of coffee stains on it, it is on a dress form waiting for paint and glitter. I don't want to embellish this dress to much, it stands well on its own. This might be a witches wedding dress. I love how the color turned out, it has an aged worn feel which I was going for.



1980s wedding,size small, about a 5, dress dyed with purple and black is now in my studio and ready to be painted and embellished. I see a vampire dress in this one. I plan to add red and black and create a boudiour ,lady of the night . This is my raw canvas. Acrylic paints can be easyly applied to fabric, and they dont wash out. Just think of it, when you get these paints on your clothes, nothing gets them out.


Getting my supplies ready in the studio, acrylic paints, sponges, glitter, hot coffee and classical music to create by.


Miranda painting two colors of glitter on lace trim on bottom of dress, tedious work, yet she has the patience. What a help she is! I use fine grain glitters, I love the Martha Stewart line, they are my favorites


I am nearly finished with the fun stage and will post the pictures shortly. As these are intended as costumes, I have used fabric glue to secure the lace, feathers and other embellishments on the dress. As we all know to well, many if not most Halloween costumes have glued features. I do this to keep the cost down, if I hand sewed everything the dress would just be too time consuming, as it is, I already have quite a few hours into each of them. The dresses will be dry clean only. It is possible that the dyes could fade with time. All in all I love doing this and can not wait to do another.

looking at creating an ad and trying to make a decsion

Discovered by A real GROOVEY GAL

FunkY FinZ is a GROOVY FIND!!!

WOW how exciting for me, I was thrilled to receive an in-box mail from groovy gals store on etsy.com informing me that one of my items was featured on her very exciting and wonderful blog. I am really impressed with what I found.



This charming badge is made available to all the vendors that she chooses to post! Easy to find code for your sites. Jo calls them GROOVY FINDS letting us know that " Here's where you'll find all of the cool and groovy stuff I've discovered lately. Enjoy!"

Funky findz on line, very groovy and one of my all time favorites
mushroom purse was featured.

REASONABLE AD RATES
I will keep my eyes on my heart count, which today stands at 10 and views at 267. I noticed on her site that she had ads for sale, I made an inquiry and within minutes she responded. I had notified her that I did not yet make an ad for funky findz on line, she promptly THE SAME DAY , made me an ad, put it up and wrote me. Heres what she created for me. Jo took my colors and content and made an appropriate ad.


Her rates are very reasonable and if you were lucky enough to be featured on her site, she offers the first month free! I am pleased with my first choice to advertise, I feel that I am supporting a good cause, it appears she largely posts etsy artists.

This groovy gal is an artist herself as seen here in one of my favoriteZ.
Retro Flower Watercolor Drawing




In addition, while browsing her monthly groovy finds, my daughter and I found an artist that we fell head over heals in love with. We are all ready saving our money to put one of her recycled up-cycled coats on layaway.
DELUXE CUSTOM - The Ultimate Patchwork Elf Coat - Upcycled Recycled Sweaters - Eco Friendly Fairy Sweater Dress - For the Hippy Bohemian Gypsy Traveller - Reconstructed Faery Couture



with my love of color and obsession with everything over the top this is a must have for this groovy gal. Check out her store at EnlightenedPlatypus


So thanks my dear Jo Claire I am proud to be a part of your group. Other etsy sellers her web site is a must check out. GROOVYGALONLINE

largest project MAKE LOVE NOT WAR outdoor couch

Allot of paint and gesso primer !
laying out the design


Fabric couch made plastic

This was one of the only pieces of furniture that my husband
and I have ever bought. Our home has been furnished with hand
me downs, inheritance or from the curb side clean up days that I so
often had cherished finding chairs that others threw away. I felt
compelled to add a dog into the equation, thinking rather
romantically that it made our home even happier. The girls
loved the idea. He, the dog, no longer with us, decided to claim
it as his own,which in his world , meant voiding that which
is meant for the sides of trees. Meant for anywhere in fact,
but on our new couch. I lost the battle, but so did he
(he went to the pound,let us hope he found a good home)
Our beautiful new couch was peeded on no matter what we did.
Late at night, while at the grocery store, with our backs turned, we
never saw him do it.

Indoor couch made into outdoor furniture

The couch smelled horrible. After getting rid of the dog, I
asked my husband to take the couch out onto our sunny
side outdoor deck. Our option was to throw it away. In the past,
when searching the streets for great findZ, I had found this charming
shaped chair that was ripped and covered in dog hair and it also stunk.
I thought I'm going to try to paint this, what can it hurt? After all it is fabric.
Just the other day while I told a friend that I was painting a couch,
he said"I didn't think you could do that." I said "Canvas is fabric,
so is the couch." Suddenly it made sense to him that of course
it could be done.

PAINT AND POLY eliminate pet smells!

Well, I dug in and painted that chair, I didn't use my good
paints and was hesitant and cautious at first,
but afterward, I was amazed at the transformation. The
smell was gone, the chair was made new. Up-cycled at its best.
In fact that chair is in my bedroom right now.
I covered the chair in poly and this is what I believe was the
ultimate order ELIMINATOR!

I told my husband that I was going
to try and paint the couch and see if it too could be saved,
otherwise we planned to take it to the dump. This thought did
not settle well with me.

Gesso, a must in this project.

This time I covered the entire couch in GESSO first.
This was a necessary step, albeit expensive.
This was a laborious task and not much fun at all. It
took nearly a full half gallon. White paint would not have
worked as well.

I purchased quarts of red,orange, yellow, black, light purple
and chartreuse from my local paint store. They were thin so
I let the sun bake on them and thickened them up a bit. The
beers I added for a bit of inspiration. I only paint on a nice
sunny day so I can get a bit of a tan,plus the paint drys faster.
I put the stereo up load with my favorite music, currently
TEEN DREAM. (you must check it out)



REQUIRES allot of paint and some beer
I am not finished. It is taking allot of paint and requires multiple coats.
I choose a very bright and hippie 1960s style. At my age I should be
ashamed, but ever since a young girl growing up during this colorful
and fantastic time, I have loved the colors and style of this periods
psychedelic art.

I plan to outline everything in black, apply highlights with my
finest paints, apply lots of glitter and at the
end but on multiple coats of polyurethane. The couch will become
like a plastic couch, it will have a fair amount of waterproof qualities,
and it will wash up easily.

I intend to keep it outside on the deck as an outdoor piece of
furniture. In the winter I will just cover it with a tarp. It will be
a wow conversation piece for our family. Already I receive
comments from the neighbors walking their dog. The children in
the neighbor hood think it is "really cool"

I am not finished yet, but I will let you know how my process is going.
So far I have about 30 hours into it. Difficult to believe. I thought I could get
it done in one day if I worked hard enough (and drank enough beer)
As with all art it takes time. But I am confident that this will pay off.
DAUGHTER helps as artist assistant .


My wonderful and very talented daughter Miranda has been
assisting me in this work. In fact she made the Happy face and
drew the peace birds. She helps in reapplying coats and filling
in large blocks of color.


It has been raining for days. I am anxious to get back to work.
At this time, I have all the color laid down. Now I get to do the
really fun work.



It took a few weeks but I got back to the couch, laid all the color out for the most part, the chartreuse and orange required multiple coats. After it dried some color faded and it too needed a few more coats. I have nearly gone threw all the quarts of paint. Now I have used my next level of paints, the one and two dollar acrylics in stand up tubes. I am beginning some detailing, experimenting really with color. I have left the birds for last, they only have a small amount of blue added. I tried to see how a black magic marker worked as an outline and it worked great. I will be using black and am considering buying other colors for the end look.

applying outline of accent paints . Hot sun and a cold beer ,I am beginning to see an end.

origins of life by C. Reinke

featured in REGRETSY mixed emotions

regretsy?
Those who cant...
c r i t i c i z e

I made my first treasury on recycled artists, and had so much fun surfing
along the artists of etsy.com , I was truly amazed at the diversity and
creativity of the artists!! I found bracelets made from coke cans as
shown here and lots of colorful joyful art. I barely could wait to do
another treasury for etsy.


Since etsy has added Treasury East and given a broader opportunity
for sellers to do Treasury's , I had been lucky enough to be featured
nearly weekly in a Treasury. It is and has always been an honour to
me to be featured. It is free advertising , true, but it means that
someone has taken the time and felt that your item was worthy of
being displayed.

After going out with a friend for a few drinks on a warm spring evening,
I came home to my laptop to check my etsy. My mailbox was full of
thanks and warm regards for the treasury that I had created, I sold
an item while I was gone, then I opened a mail that simply said

Were you aware?
Did you know that your one of your phones made it to the Regretsy website? http://www.regretsy.com

I miss read regretsy to read registry . I was excited, life felt good ,
my hard hard work was paying off. I thought incorrectly that my
phone was featured in something relating to etsy, a good thing.
I clicked the link which lead to the May site for the most recent post here





There is my phone, and WOW 62 comments! my heart beat
with excitement. The first comment , was horrible, did I read
it right? the next and the next weird , confusing. My face felt
hot, I slowly disengaged from my body, everything felt unreal.
I read posts such as :
It’s looks like the beaded curtain and the telephone got into

a fight and the telephone lost.

another wrote
Liberace called from beyond. He wants his telephone back

These I found cleaver and even funny but I was confused

at the cruelty and rawness of some of the remarks such as

Way to ruin a vintage phone. I don’t give a shit if 22

hours were invested to fuck it up, but it’s worthless now!

The mink really did it in. lol

Next time, if you want to fuck things up

, use a hammer. Guaranteed it won’t take 22 hours.
This comment positively hurt to the core and

A fingerless epileptic could produce finer work in less time.
How, I wondered could everyone hate my phone? One of my
phones had recently made it to a Treasury. When My Art gallery
was open, a notable collector added one of my Candy phones
along with a suitcase and bike) to his large outstanding collection
of OUTSIDER artists. I was confused and humiliated. Then I forged
on and realized that the comments where being rated, as it stands
to date the number one rated comment is from

LeeLooDallas : Someone use this to call 9-1-1.
and then This is the phone you use to call
Liza Minnelli in an emergency.

these two number one rated comments I find funny , cleaver
and given the overall intended spirit of the site in good humor.
However, so many of the comments are, as others feel hurtful,
mean spirited and even hateful.

Shortly after I was featured I received an inbox at etsy from an
unknown buyer which reads
I'm sorry they posted one of your creations
on that site. The author of the blog and the
book Regretsy (recently published) does noting
to contribute but spends her time trolling Etsy to
find items to bash. Check out her facebook page
(especially the "Flounce" page. I am a shopper,
but posted a message about the mean-spirited culture
the "author" endorses. She is hateful. Instead of
celebrating the good on Etsy, she seeks out items
to make fun of, and all under the shield that she
is promoting charities (hardly).

People say it is a good thing because she is bringing
traffic to their Web sites. In fact, weird people have
been purposefully posting crud just to get on to her
Web site. I left a comment about the mean-spirited
nature of the comments and was blasted by hateful remarks.
They act like bullying teenage girls. They harassed me
for taking up for Etsy sellers and set me crude and
vicious private messages. I copied them all and
will be sending them to her book agent. Not very good pr!

Anyhow, saw your blog and I would just ignore it.
They waste so much time blasting people left and
right that they are all over someone else now.
The best thing is to ignore them. After all, what
they are doing is not imaginative and gets old
petty quick. It will crash soon when people
get bored with it

Take care,
Laurie Charnigo


In an attempt to receive feedback from other etsy sellers,
I posted in a forum
Familiar with the site regretsy? any victims?
what are your thoughts?
I received what I was looking for, good feedback.
The two most helpful
came from



Honestly I wouldn't sweat it. Sure it can be cruel, but
honestly the site gets so much traffic it's going to drive
traffic to your site. And it's instant free advertising.
It may hurt for a while, but try to keep your head up and
look on the bright side. You can look at from either side
of the coin. And really it's best to ignore it and move on.
Some folks who were on the site made it into the Regretsy
book with permission and are continuing to get free advertising
out of the entire thing. So try to take the good with the bad.
I feel for you but try not to let it get you down. Hugs.

While on the other side I received
Regretsy's climate is to be hateful and mean and top each
other in the hate.

You will not find any nice comments there, so please
don't let it ruin your day, there's art to be made!

Hummm, useful. The hurt was subsiding slowly. The night this happened to me,
I slept like crap, all the doubts that so many artists are
plagued with haunted me once again. I'm no good, give it up, you are kidding
yourself, you are a fool for devoting your life to art
and on and on it went. The Book the ARTISTS WAY , was life
changing for me.
I am 51 years old or young, whatever... my life has been
devoted to ART. Minored in it in Collage, ran two art
Galleries have exhibited threw out the US and even In Europe
when asked at a cocktail party "what do you do?"?
I reply "I'm an artist" it is who I am.

I could not help but feel genuine mixed emotions, I watched
my hits or views on my
phone go up daily, today now nearly 1500 views.
That's great on one hand.
People are seeing my work! I have to keep telling myself that
not everyone hates it or thinks its junk as Regretsy has implied.
I once said, its not my quote, but I certainly have repeated it enough
That notoriety is the best publicity!

We think of Van Gogh and other great artists who were
misunderstood and ridiculed.
I can hear them now at Regresty"'Well, you are no Van Gogh"
"No?" I can ask. "I very well might be" I will hit the bottle of
now legal Absinthe, look for the green fairy,
keep my ears in place and forge ahead with paint brush,glitter in hand
and tackle another phone.

Featured in a etsy Treasury and found a great artist all at once

the owner of the shop who sells this work created a Treasury that
included an item from my store, when I went to visit his site I came
across his fabulous work that I feel in love with . It is so funky,
kitsch and original. I would love to own one of his prints.
This one is one of my favorites. to see his store click on this link http://www.etsy.com/shop/johnpurlia
























Photograph - Welcoming the World to the Pageant of
Plastic Prophecy, 1964 - Limited Edition

This fine art photograph is now available as a limited
edition Digital C-print on Fuji Crystal Archive paper
with a glossy finish. Your purchase will be carefully
packaged and will include a signed and numbered
Certificate of Authentication, and special instructions
on how to care for your new fine art print.

Let your visitors know they are stepping into a fun
and quirky home. "Welcoming the World to the Pageant
of Plastic Prophecy, 1964" is perfect for adorning an
entryway. Who wouldn't want to be greeted by lovely
ice skaters and grinning kewpies?

Greetings and Welcome to our Plastic Prophets paradise!
Here you will find wonders to delight, the worshipped
and the worshipper, astonishing transformation, and
dreams for bright lights and the big city. Come a little
closer and peer past the veil into our mystic revelations.
The discoveries that await you! Are you ready? Take
my hand and follow me.

Please Note: The photograph you are purchasing is
the first picture shown. The following pictures are
provided to show you how my elaborate photographic
dioramas are staged. Shown last is the Certificate
of Authenticity (COA) you will receive with your purchase.

Edition Size: 10
Paper Size: 24 x 24"
Image Size: 18.6 x 20.1"
Price: $450
Added on Apr 20





The artist put together
a Treasury called
Bavarian Wonders
Check it out. The child's lederhosen
is the item that is featured in
this treasury.